After the battle [of Borodino] the 2nd Light Horse Lancers of the Guard, known as the Dutch Red Lancers, spent the night in woods that had been captured by Poniatowski’s infantry, where the ground around the trees was so heavily littered with corpses that they were forced to carry scores out of the way before they could clear a space for their tents.
’In order to get some water it was necessary to travel far from the field of battle,’ wrote the veteran Major Louis Joseph Vionnet of the Middle Guard in his memoirs. ‘Any water to be found on the field was so soaked with blood that even the horses refused to drink it.’
When the next day Napoleon arrived to thank and reward the remains of the 61st Demi-Brigade for capturing the Grand Redoubt, he asked its colonel why its third battalion wasn’t on parade.
’Sire,’ came the reply, ‘it is in the redoubt.’
Source:
Roberts, Andrew. "Trapped." Napoleon: A Life. New York: Penguin, 2014. 607-08. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Pawly, Red Lancers pp. 37-8.
ed. North, With Napoleon’s Guard p. 61.
ed. Summerville, Napoleon’s Expedition to Russia p. 70.
Further Reading:
Бородинское сражение / Bataille de la Moskova (Battle of Borodino)
Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski
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